Woman sends text to police, asking for Xanax

Karly Bradley mistakenly thought the cell phone number for Lt. Chris Golden, a Bartlett police officer, was "an old dope boy named G."

By Clay Bailey
The Commercial Appeal

BARTLETT, Tenn. — A woman who included a Bartlett police lieutenant in a text for Xanax, waived her preliminary hearing Friday morning and was held for the action of the Shelby County grand jury.

Karly Bradley, 24, was ordered held under a $5,000 bond after an appearance before Special Judge Tracey Malone in Bartlett Municipal Court.

Bradley faces three drug-related charges in connection with the ill-directed text sent earlier this week. Among those included in the message "U got stix" was Lt. Chris Golden, a Bartlett police officer, who had come in contact with Bradley in March.

Golden was among a group of officers serving a search warrant on a person in the Cordova area and Golden gave his phone number to Bradley who was there at the time.

According to police reports, the officer received a text about 8 p.m. Tuesday asking, "U got stix"? Golden recognized the term as a reference to Xanax.

Responding to the text, Golden, who did not identify himself, texted the woman back and said he had 10 Xanax bars for $60. The pair then negotiated a trade because the woman wanted only three but offered to trade some Suboxone for the Xanax, according to the police offense report. He was able to cross-reference the phone number from which the text came as belonging to Karly Bradley.
Golden set up the meeting for Wednesday at a shopping center in the 7600 block of U.S. 70 to complete the transaction. The shopping center is located directly behind Bartlett police headquarters.

Further research showed Bradley owned a white Ford Explorer, the same model the text-sender said she would be driving to the sale. When an Explorer pulled onto the lot about 3 p.m., the department's Crime Suppression Unit was in place, stopped the vehicle and identified the driver as Bradley.

A prescription box of Suboxone was on the seat. That, and the intended transaction, led to her arrest.

According to the offense report, Bradley said she thought Golden's number was "an old dope boy named G." She also told police she recently has been taking care of a relative's infant child and needed the Xanax to calm her nerves.